The Pocketbook Verse Lite e-reader is a new entry-level e-reader designed for budget-conscious individuals who need a device that doesn’t lock them into a specific ecosystem. Pocketbook excels at supporting a wide range of e-book formats, making it perfect for sideloading. It also supports Adobe DRM, so you can buy e-books from Google Play Books, Kobo, and a multitude of others and load them on.
The Verse Lite will feature a 6-inch E INK Carta e-paper display with a resolution of 1024×768 and 212 PPI. PocketBook Verse Lite’s built-in front light is ideal for reading in low-light conditions, whether in bed at night or in a dimly lit room. Unlike smartphones or tablets, which illuminate the face, Verse Lite uses diodes around the frame to gently light the screen, not the user. Thanks to E Ink technology, Verse Lite lets you read with the front light wholly turned off – unlike tablets and smartphones – offering a more natural reading experience with zero Blue Light emission.
Underneath the hood is a dual-core 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage. The retail packaging claims it comes with an SD card, but it doesn’t. Pocketbook said they will put stickers on the first batch of units to inform customers. Wi-Fi is available only on the 2.4 GHz band, and USB-C is used for charging and data transfer. It is powered by a modest 1000 mAh battery, but since it runs Linux, it should still provide a few weeks of continuous usage before needing to be recharged.
PocketBook Verse Lite supports 25 popular e-book and graphic formats, including comic and manga, for more versatile reading. It officially supports the following file formats: ACSM, AZW, AZW3, CBR, CBZ, CHM, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, FB2.ZIP, HTM, HTML, MOBI, PDF, PRC, RTF, and TXT. The device supports Adobe DRM and LCP DRM-protected formats, allowing users to access content from various online stores and libraries. Cloud services enable effortless library management and book synchronization across multiple devices. Alternatively, the Dropbox service makes e-book delivery to the device fast and easy.
One of the drawbacks of Verse Lite is that it lacks physical page-turn buttons, instead relying on a touchscreen display. The e-book reader is also fairly chunky, with a significant bezel on the right side and thick ones surrounding the e-paper screen. I also wish it had a 300 PPI display, instead of 212.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.